When I first got interested in piercing, I thought I was the only freak around that wanted to pierce something other than my ears. But then again, that was in 1990, before anything on the Internet got nearly as organized as it is now. I had read in the University library about people in the Victorian age piercing their nipples, and even though I didn't know a thing about it, I knew I had to have my nipples pierced. I wish I could remember what book I was reading that in.
At A Glance Author Djgar Contact Djgar@bme.anon When A week ago Artist Myself Location Raleigh, NC So, I started doing a little bit of researching. On my Mac Classic with the 9-inch grayscale screen, I could use my super-fast 14.4 modem to log into the University mainframe and from there use a newsreader to read newsgroups. It seemed that only the computer geeks at school knew how to do it, and I had to get lessons from them on navigating the University mainframe with VT100 terminal emulation. On a freak chance, I did a search and found a very active newsgroup on piercing. After lurking for awhile and studying all of the multiple-part FAQs, I got down to business and pierced my left nipple by myself. That was in 1991, and with the first bloody mess I made with myself, I was hooked. There weren't any piercers in town then, so I was on my own.
Soon after the left one, I pierced my right nipple. And then wanted more. In 1992 I think I might have been the first person at my school with his tongue pierced. I think that not many people noticed it, because I remember a girl named Laura telling me about this weird story she read in the newspaper about people piercing their tongues, and other things... and even their nipples. She just about fell over when I stuck my tongue out at her!
When it was time for a PA, I was in grad school, and I decided that I'd better find a professional (don't want to screw up THAT pierce!) and found a great piercer in Ann Arbor, MI from references on the newsgroups.
Since then, I've been pierced for the past 13 years in all the same places. Tongue, nipples and PA. My right nipple wasn't really ever pierced straight and after a migration of the pierce about 3 years ago, I took it out. And just last week I finally re-pierced it!
Wow, it's been a long time. And things have changed for the best since I did my first pierce. I ordered a 14g needle and cbr from bme. The quality of the needle and the cbr are just amazing. The needle was sooo much sharper than what I first used, and that bevel... wow, almost frightening. To think that my first pierce was with a sharpened, then boiled straight pin that was just maybe a half-gauge shy of the ring going into the hole, I could really remember the days of throbbing, bruised nipples. And, I hate pain.
I remembered those days so well that I put off re-piercing for almost two years. I felt lop-sided and out of balance with a 10g ring in my left nipple and a naked right nipple. But the thought of re-piercing it made me wuss out!
So when I finally got up the guts after staring at the needle's bevel for a week, I decided to re-pierce my right nipple. Clean everything. I carefully opened the sterile glove package to pull the real, sterile surgeons gloves on. Clean part to be pierced with hibiclens. Don't touch anything but the sterile needle that was carefully sticking out of the sterilization pouch. I was standing there with the needle in hand pressed in position shaking like a leaf... and there was no way that I was going to just take a jab at it and get it over with, I wanted the placement to be perfect this time. So, slowly and carefully and with a lot of concentration I was able to ease the needle through my nipple. Perfect. And there was so little pain!
Changing to the cbr was a breeze. It was so much easier this time than it was when I first pierced it – since I pierced my nipples in the early 90s they had become much larger and more sensitive than they had been before, and I was able to pierce now with such a great strong and sharp needle that the whole process was easy. My nipples hurt for weeks after the first pierces, and even though it was just last Thursday, on Monday (today) there's very little pain and healing is progressing along fast.
Kudos for the piercing world! The Internet and bme have really refined techniques and I'm proud to say that I've kept all my pierces for all this time, even though I'm an attorney now in a fairly-conservative office. I can definitely say that I am very happy to be balanced again, and that I finally feel that I'm not off-kilter walking around with only one nipple pierced. (And, I think I'm hooked again... maybe a septum?)